


Preludes

by starstriker162



Series: Postscripts and Related Works [2]
Category: Fablehaven Series - Brandon Mull
Genre: Gen, diverges from dragonwatch onwards, hopefully not ooc but i'm not promising, i don't trust fics that don't have tons of useless tags can you tell, probably will add more tags as i go, the bracken/kendra is there but it's not huge at least not for now, yall should read dragonwatch if you havent already its great
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-16
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-02-03 06:58:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12743328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starstriker162/pseuds/starstriker162
Summary: There are always warning signs, it's just that no one ever sees them until it's too late (conversely, you don't know you're making mistakes until they're already done).





	1. The Book

On his eighteenth birthday, Seth gets a new bedroom.

This isn’t surprising– with the fact that he is now officially an adult, the magic in the (refurbished) attic will no longer work for him, and hence it just makes sense for him to move away from the bed that was already too small for him to fully stretch out in. Plus, the attic room seems way smaller now that he’s eighteen. It was great when he was a younger teenager, but now it’s on the cramped side of cozy. A bigger room is actually kind of a nice change.

It’s still really hard to leave the room that he’s made so many memories in. 

Of course, he can still visit it whenever he wants. It’d just be kind of stupid– what sort of person visits their old room? Sentimentality is for kids. 

He’s in it one last time, a backpack with him to help carry stuff to his new room. All he has to do is check it one last time to make sure he hasn’t left anything behind. Clothes out of the dresser? Check. Collection of books his sister has been ironically giving him for the past six years (jokes on you, Kendra, he’s carved several of them out to use as emergency candy storage)? Check. A contraband laptop that his grandparents can never know about or he’ll probably get locked in the dungeon for real? Check.

There’s just one more thing then, he thinks as he pulls the backpack off of him and places it on the floor. Laying down, he squirms under the bed and brushes his fingers over an inconspicuous hatch on the floor. It has no key– he destroyed it as soon as he had it installed (and by “destroyed” he means convinced Newel and Doren it was a key to some treasure trove somewhere. A bit mean, but good as destroyed). Instead, he reaches out with what little refined power he has, and combs through the mechanisms of the lock.

The hatch clicks open (he could one hundred percent be some sort of spy or something, that is so cool), and with a slight struggle, he peels it open to reveal a yellowed old tome, really classy looking, written in some weird demonic language. It’s always a challenge to get it out, since he has to shuffle backward with his arm outstretched, dragging the book with him.

It came to him about two years ago, in one of the stranger experiences of his life (and that’s saying quite a bit, considering everything that happened in his early teens). A gargantuan raven with a satchel around its back had just flown right through the defenses and landed on the roof. Seth, of course, had learned his lesson about opening windows, but eventually it had dipped its head to take the pack off and left it behind. He still took it with great trepidation.

At first, he had considered giving it to his grandparents. The book hadn’t felt safe at all. Still, he was curious, and he knew that they were just going to take it away from him. So, he had opened it.

It had been one of the most educational experiences of his life. Something that actually outlined how to use his freaky shadow charmer powers and make good contracts with the undead rather than just winging it and hoping they didn’t eat your soul? Call him insane, but that seemed like a pretty good deal! Seth with the book was way safer than Seth without the book. So he kept it. He was an adult now anyways– and that meant he could keep whatever he liked. And that included weird shadow charmer books written in Demon or whatever.

He didn’t actually know why he knew that it wasn’t English or Duggish or something. He just… did. Maybe it was like Kendra with her fairykind stuff. She had gotten better at that recently, although she had Bracken helping her.

Well not everyone had their own personal unicorn helper-boyfriend combo deal, Kendra. Sometimes people need their old creepy books. 

On a side note, he still totally had the satchel it came in. It wasn’t normal burlap or anything– whatever that stuff was, it was sturdy. That he could explain pretty easily– it didn’t exactly radiate magic like the book did, he could just say he picked it up at a yard sale or something. Not that there were any yard sales in Fablehaven. Upon second thoughts, might need a better lie.

He stuffs both the book and the satchel in his backpack– better safe then locked in the dungeon he decides– and walks cautiously down the stairs, looking from side to side once he gets to the bottom to see if any of the adults are around. He’s pretty sure no one would look through his bag (that would be weird even by their ultra-paranoid standards), but he didn’t really prepare a lie like he wanted to. 

He’s a few steps towards his new room when he’s stopped. “Seth, why are you creeping around with a backpack on your shoulders?” 

It’s his sister. Great. Time for an incredibly believable and impromptu lying session. 

“Hey Kendra! Just finishing up moving all my stuff down. I’ll be out of your hair in a second.” Absolutely flawless, technically true, and not at all suspiciously polite or high-pitched. Kendra’s built-in lie detector will catch that in a second.

“Really? Why don’t you just carry it down normally?” She asks. “You don’t have any contraband on you, do you?”

He’s so busted. Time for a better lie, and fast. He sighs and pulls a book out of his bag– one of the ones he hasn’t carved compartments in. “Alright, you caught me. I transporting books, Kendra.”

She looks at the cover of the book once and gives a bit of a grin. “The Great Gatsby? You actually read the stuff I give you?”

No, of course not, but now he feels bad. “Yeah,” He says. “It’s one of my favorites so far.”

She’s probably so pleased to have new info on Seth’s reading habits that she forgets to interrogate him more, and when she speaks next she sounds genuinely happy. “Alright, I’m sorry for doubting you. I can’t believe that after all these years you still refuse to let anyone know that you actually like reading.”

Yikes, now he feels really bad. Oh well, he’s in too deep now. “Yeah, reading, it’s secretly my favorite. You caught me.” He manages to squeak out before stuffing the book back in and darting away. Behind him, he thinks he can hear laughing. Kendra probably thinks he’s just embarrassed instead of scared out of his mind.

“Happy birthday, Seth!” She shouts from behind him.

His new room is just down the adjacent hallway, and has a bathroom attached to it (finally, he won’t have to walk downstairs every time he wakes up in the middle of the night.) The door locks too– he has no clue why they trusted him with that kind of power, he thinks as he closes it. Still, he should find a new hiding place for the book while he’s at it. 

Seth looks on the floor for a while, trying to find out if there’s a hatch anywhere like the one up in the attic, but he doesn’t have any luck with that. He briefly considers just placing it behind another book on the shelf, but quickly realizes it’s too large that. In the end, he slides it under the dresser and covers it up with the sack from his backpack. Someone would have to crawl around on the floor to see it, and even then it doesn’t look too suspicious (okay, maybe a little suspicious).

With that, he collapses onto the bed already in the room. He’s had enough excitement for today, and he’s still got a party tonight (he knows that they’re planning a surprise, if only Kendra intercepted him). Probably best to rest up.

(Unbeknownst to him, an oversized raven that had been sitting on a tree branch in clear view from the window flies away with a rattling squawk, and several hundred miles away, a being older than Zzyzx itself closes its third eye.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter takes place when Seth is 18 and Kendra is 20 (if you want a timeline with Postscripts). Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a really long time since I've updated this? I mean, it's not an actual story. It's a bunch of oneshots for this dumb AU.
> 
> Anyways, part of the problem is that this AU gets really OC heavy as it goes on, and you guys probably don't want to read about those guys. So, until I figure out how to do that well, I'm generally at a block for this AU.
> 
> I've gotten better at writing since I started this particular chapter as well–you might notice a slight quality jump in the middle of it? I'm not sure if it'll be that obvious. Anyways, enjoy it!

Kendra sat on the couch in the living room, her eyes closed as she listened to the crackling pops of the fireplace as her grandparents and Agad talk in the room just a closed door away. Her eye twitched as the voices swelled to a slightly louder volume, but stopped as they quieted again. Breathing grew steadily more challenging as the argument continued, and her fingers curled into the arm of the sofa. 

 

They’re fighting over her, and her decisions.

 

Just a day ago, she had been told that if she wanted to become an Eternal, now was her chance. Her parents and grandparents had forbidden her from taking such an action– she was seventeen, she had already been through so much, she didn’t know what she was getting into, she couldn’t possibly understand, couldn’t they wait, the list grew longer and longer and she had grown less and less calm.

 

She wasn’t Seth– she couldn’t snap and stand up to them like that. So, she, through her tears, had agreed with them, and went to the one person who could be Seth, the boy himself.

 

Surprisingly (or maybe not? If there was anyone who understood her situation, it would be him), he had listened to her entire story, and sympathized with her, even sharing some of his precious candy stash with her as she tried to wipe away her tears with the already damp arm of her coat. Then he suggested that, as she was in the presence of a master of doing incredibly stupid and risky things, that they initiate a truce and go anyways.

 

Kendra had argued that Agad would never go through with it if he didn’t think that their parents were on board. Seth pointed out that he was a millennia old wizard who didn’t have much of an issue with literal children fighting demons, even if that was an emergency, and that he’d probably be okay with this too. 

 

She hated admitting that he had a very valid point. 

 

They had crept to the transporter barrel to Wyrmroost at around midnight, Seth shadewalking the entire way (she was never going to get over how freaky any kind of invisibility was, thank you very much). “Alright,” he had whispered. “I’ve helped you with your daring escape this far. Next part’s on you.”

 

She uncertainly glanced down at the barrel. “Thanks Seth.” And then the house melted into the grey walls of Wyrmroost’s keep, her brother disappearing with it.

 

She had gone to Agad, and like Seth predicted he, with some persuasion and yes, she was very certain about this, had agreed to let her go through the process. The other Eternals were already there– the Sphinx was present, as they had decided, looking a bit bored with the whole thing but in a polite way, and very clearly listening in on what was going on, along with two people she didn’t recognize. The last person came as a surprise to her.

 

“Mara?” Kendra asked, temporarily ignoring the other two people in the room and purposely ignoring the Sphinx. No way was she talking to that guy. Twice was enough.

 

Mara gave her a slight wave and quick, tight, smile, but didn’t say anything else. Kendra couldn’t claim to read her too well, but she looked slightly nervous. Somehow, it reassured her– Mara had survived getting thrown off of a cliff, so Kendra’s growing trepidation was probably normal for this sort of situation.

 

The process itself was actually rather undramatic. If Kendra was being perfectly honest, she didn’t remember much of the rest of the night, although she remembered that the two strangers, a man and a woman, were Li Jie and Kavya respectively. She suspected that there had been some sort of magic at workories that influenced her mem, which was curious in the fact that anything that distracted people from what was going on around them generally didn’t work on her. Maybe Agad had researched something new? It was probably just to ensure that the Eternals didn’t know too much–and that none of them could betray each other. She couldn’t even recall what the other two looked like.

 

She did remember the explanations of their new abilities, however. These early stages were when they were at their most vulnerable, and Agad had explained that all except her would be staying at Wyrmroost until a few months later when they would receive their shape shifting guardian. Agad had told her that he had faith in Fablehaven’s defenses, and that it was likely she would actually be safer there than here. Plus, he had added on, it would be best if you explained the situation to your guardians.

 

So she had gone back that morning, hoping not to get caught as she snuck back to the attic. 

 

Her hopes were quickly dashed when she walked straight into Grandpa Sorenson.

 

“Where were you young lady?” He had asked, and she had instantly paled not just because she had no good defense prepared, but because he sounded so tired, like he hadn’t expected this from her of all people.

 

She had told the truth, and part of her intensely regretted it. The other part didn’t, if only because she was not built for lying and it would have kept her up at night if she hadn’t been honest. Kendra really would like to think that that part of her was the larger half, but she wasn’t too sure.

 

And that’s how she ended up on the sofa, listening to her family argue over what just happened while she watched a fire flicker. It didn’t sound like Seth had been brought in, which made her wonder where we was. Maybe, she thought with a tiny snicker (hiding a hitch in her voice), they really had locked him up this time. 

 

More likely was that he was out in the woods somewhere. Was he even allowed to be there? She wasn’t really sure. She wasn’t really sure on whether anyone cared any more. Almost certainly not, she settled on.

 

After what felt like several long torturous hours (although, upon checking the clock, it had only been about forty minutes), Grandma Sorenson exited the room, closing the door behind her and sitting next to her on the sofa. “Kendra,” She began. “You realize why we’re upset with you, right?”

 

Kendra was so not going to burst out into tears. She had killed the Demon King, and watched several of her friends die in the long process to getting there. Moderate disappointment from her grandmother was not something to cry over.

 

“I only wanted to help,” she mumbled, not making eye contact with her. “I’m–I’m really sorry, I just thought–”

 

Her grandmother sat down next to her. “Kendra, we don’t blame you for trying to do the right thing. We’re upset because you decided to sneak out instead of just talking to us. We still might not have agreed, but it would have been better than going off on your own. How did you even get out without us noticing?”

 

For a moment, she was tempted to tell on Seth–the truth was her nature, and she felt she had lied enough for one day. But none of this was really his fault, and blaming him would only be trying to take punishment off herself. “I just went up to the barrel alone,” she said. “I honestly thought I would get caught, but before I knew it I was already there, and I just–I only…”

 

“Kendra, you’re alright. You’re certainly going to be grounded, and we’re going to ask Agad if there’s any way the process is reversible–” Kendra knew there was no way that was the case “–but there’s no need to be scared of us,” Ruth finished. “Now, how about you go talk to your parents. That’s part one of your punishment, since you get to explain the whole situation to them.”

 

“Okay,” she said, sniffling a little. “Okay, thank you.”

 

(Her parents did yell at her when she broke it to them that she was sort-of-kind-of immortal now, but Seth high fived her under the table when he came back to her being chewed out by pretty much everyone. That, somehow, made things better.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the timeline–this one takes place before the previous chapter, probably actually pretty soon after canon (considering they have to get Eternals pretty quickly). So Kendra's probably still 15/16, and Seth's 13/14. 
> 
> Honestly, these notes are mostly to myself. Thanks for reading!


End file.
